The Kid with a Bike follows a particularly emotional and difficult period of childhood for eleven year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret). Following his father's abandonment, Cyril compulsively searches for the symbol that represents their relationship -- his bicycle. At the hands of fate he becomes the custodial responsibility of Samantha (Cécile De France) who is determined to tame his unpredictable and seemingly dangerous behaviour.

Cyril's absolutely catastrophic attempt at seeking a father figure makes The Kid with a Bike a rather difficult film to watch. The emotional power surging through the film comes courtesy of Thomas Doret whose action is unstoppable. Everything the young actor does on screen is exacting and performed with such intent. Even an action as simple as…

It is extremely hot in the Netherlands right now, so I was relieved to find out that the Belgian channel showed this, so that I could watch something in my much cooler basement, instead of behind my PC in this boiling living room. ‘The Kid with the Bike’ is perhaps the most accessible film of the influential brothers Dardenne of whom I have as of yet never seen a picture, but I still had some trouble to get into it. Notwithstanding the fact that the young Thomas Doret convinced me of his skill soon enough, his performance appeared unnatural to me during the movie’s first shots. As soon as it began to live up to its IMDb-description, however, not only…

France, Sweden, Ireland, the UK and sometimes Italy have been notorious countries that apply an absorbing, minimalistic style to the events depicted to make them more serious in tone and more invasive psychologically. The Dardenne brothers put that trend to good use in what may be their most simplistic film, but like it has been said before: "In simplicity lies complexity".

Some parallels may be drawn between Truffaut's Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959), as we witness a boy with a strong lack of parental figures and in a world of adulthood irresponsibility wandering aimlessly through the streets, he seems to follow the same steps that any Antoine Doinel would make: feeling misunderstood and alone, escaping his home, engaging in thievery,…

A painstaking study of a young boy have a very hard time of it, The Kid with a Bike is another slice of microscopically observed small-town Belgian life from the Dardenne brothers.

Cyril (Thomas Doret) is a troubled ten year-old with unspecified emotional and behavioural problems. He has been abandoned by his feckless father into the foster care system. In the process he has also lost his beloved bike. During an escape attempt from the home, he literally bumps into kindly Samantha (Cecile de France) who, apparently kindly-disposed to him locates and returns his bike. He brazenly asks if he can stay at hers at weekends. For obscure reasons she agrees.

This is my fourth Dardenne-film I think, and this brotherly directing-duo defiantly knows how to make genuinely good films, using their very own unique style of filmmaking. Their signature style leans towards a special kind of subgenre that I really enjoy, and if I had to describe it, I would call it a humanistic and super-realistic take on the modern world and society’s many problems. All their films seem very distinctive and following a certain simplistic style that perhaps would bore the crap out of you in the hands of other directors. Somehow The Dardennes just lift so much life out of the most simple and grounded scenes, and somehow the result always feels fresh.

A painstaking study of a young boy have a very hard time of it, The Kid with a Bike is another slice of microscopically observed small-town Belgian life from the Dardenne brothers.

Cyril (Thomas Doret) is a troubled ten year-old with unspecified emotional and behavioural problems. He has been abandoned by his feckless father into the foster care system. In the process he has also lost his beloved bike. During an escape attempt from the home, he literally bumps into kindly Samantha (Cecile de France) who, apparently kindly-disposed to him locates and returns his bike. He brazenly asks if he can stay at hers at weekends. For obscure reasons she agrees.

I very much enjoy films that are understated slices of real life yet whilst it was brilliantly acted and shot with beautiful simplicity I just felt it lacked a little oomph and resolved a little too cleanly.

A couple of years ago when I watched my first Dardenne brothers film, L'enfant, I was expecting something completely different from what I got. A quote on the back of the DVD told me that the film was something of a "modern day fairy tale", so I was imagining an experience along the lines of Slumdog Millionaire...boy, was I wrong haha. I was definitely a bit puzzled after watching the film, so I read up on the Dardennes and then began to understand why they were critically praised and what their goal as filmmakers was. With this knowledge, I can now fully appreciate their films and I ended up really loving Two…

It’s obvious that Cyril has had a very tough upbringing, but there’s only so far that my sympathy will go, and the main issue I had with Kid with a Bike is that for 90% of its runtime the main character is an insufferable little shit who I really had no desire to root or feel concern for.

I realise one of the film’s main archs is how Cyril changes for the better but it happens fairly suddenly and without any true justification - just what seems to be a fairly forced apology for one of his horrible acts. For me it seems a bit much to ask to believe the character…